Combined Piscina and Credence, and Piscina - Church of St.Ippolyts, St.Ippolyts, Hertfordshire. SG4 7PE - Stone Church Artefacts on Waymarking.com

This parish church is Grade I listed. The traditional date of its foundation is 1087 in the fabric of the nave and chancel; north and south aisles were added and chancel remodelled in early C14th; in the C14th the west tower built; C15th north and south porches added and chancel arch widened; base of cross-like spire is dated '1636'; considerable repairs in 1839; new east window inserted in the chancel 1874-5. The restoration of the nave in 1877-8 was by Joseph Clarke, Diocesan Architect (builder Mr. Gregory of Clapham Junction) and involved carefully rebuilding three walls up from the foundations re-incorporating older features with new roof over nave and aisles, and building an organ chamber and north vestry. The old tower was releaded in 1880; organ rebuilt in 1891; choir vestry at the north of the earlier vestry added in 1913-14; new altar rails 1939; spire releaded in 1940. Built of flint rubble faced in coursed pebbles with stone dressings, tufa C11th dressings at the junction of the nave and narrower chancel on the south side and to a blocked south window and at the south-east angle of the nave, clunch or limestone for later work. Timber framed south porch with C17th red brick later infill to the sides. Steep old red tile roofs with lead to the north aisle.

In the south chancel wall beneath a window and inside the sanctuary is this C13th twin-arched combined piscina and credence with shaft between.

At the east end of the south aisle is another piscina, this one a C14th trefoil-headed example with incised decoration.

The Piscina was a shallow basin structure used to hold the water used either to wash the hands before administrating the holy sacraments or the washing of the communion vessels. It usually had a drain to the earth through the wall so to dispose of water used sacramentally, by returning these particles directly to the earth. In the Roman Catholic tradition the drain is called a sacrarium.

A Credence is used to hold the vessels and elements used in the eucharist service, nowadays it takes the form of a table but in the Middle Ages the credence would be, as here, combined with the piscina.

Words variously from British Listed Buildings, Pevsner's Hertfordshire Buildings, and Wikipedia, amended and added to with own on-site observations.

Co-ordinates are for the south porch.

Approximate Age of Artefact: Early English, C13th, and C14th. Relevant Website: Not listed

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